19/08/2009

'K9' Beats Chopper To Missing Pensioner

A specialist police dog is to get plenty of praise from his handler after finding a missing pensioner.

Despite sending up the sophisticated PSNI helicopter, (pictured) it was Tach the German Shepherd who eventually tracked down the 80-year-old man.

He had fallen in fields in rural Co Fermanagh and was facing a night in the elements.

Although the elderly man was suffering from mild hypothermia when he was eventually found he still had a lucky escape.

The dog tracked him down after a three and a half hour search.

The alarm was initially raised when a carer called at his home near Newtownbutler at around 8.30pm last Friday to discover he wasn't at home.

A police spokesman said an extensive search was launched.

"The police helicopter was tasked to the scene, and police on foot and a local police dog handler began a search," he said.

"At around midnight, Constable Keith McCabe and his Belgian Shepherd dog Tach located the man where he had fallen in fields near his home."

The pensioner was treated in hospital over the weekend and returned home on Sunday, but details have only now been made known.

(BMcC/KMcA)

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